This week Micah Golomb-Leavitt from Phi Kappa Theta shares his Spring Break service trip experience:
From March 11 - March 17, eleven of the sophomores in Phi Kappa Theta, including myself, took part in a service trip in Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Each day at 8:30 a.m., we would travel 30 minutes through the city to the Hogar Escuela Armando Rosemberg, a school and orphanage educating children from one-year-olds to seniors in high school. Here, we would help the grounds crew with any tasks they needed done for the day. Some of the tasks involved repainting walls, cleaning trash from the school grounds to make it more presentable and breaking down school desks and recycling the metal which could help the school administrators raise money to purchase new supplies for the students. On the final day, we played the high schoolers in basketball with around one hundred kids watching and cheering in the audience, electrifying the environment around the school.
This experience was truly impactful, as it allowed us to recognize the privileges we have every day in the United States, receiving a private school education and having access to resources such as career counseling that prepare us for life beyond college. As soon as we arrived in Santo Domingo and at the orphanage, we could feel how different the culture was, and how differently we, as young Americans, view money and wealth. This realization was one of the most important things we experienced in the Dominican Republic, and that really helped us to make the most out of our week-long service trip. Every chance we got to speak to the children in the school we took advantage of, despite the evident language barrier. Every opportunity we were given to help the administrators make the school environment a safer and cleaner place we made sure to do so with our best ability. We hope our time there positively impacted the children at the orphanage as much as it did us, but the truth is that they need more support than eleven college students cleaning and painting. We are so glad that we were given the opportunity to experience this trip and help out in whatever ways we could; however, the impact we had on the community is hopefully only the beginning to a lifetime of service that we, as a whole university, can provide to children like them.
This experience was truly impactful, as it allowed us to recognize the privileges we have every day in the United States, receiving a private school education and having access to resources such as career counseling that prepare us for life beyond college. As soon as we arrived in Santo Domingo and at the orphanage, we could feel how different the culture was, and how differently we, as young Americans, view money and wealth. This realization was one of the most important things we experienced in the Dominican Republic, and that really helped us to make the most out of our week-long service trip. Every chance we got to speak to the children in the school we took advantage of, despite the evident language barrier. Every opportunity we were given to help the administrators make the school environment a safer and cleaner place we made sure to do so with our best ability. We hope our time there positively impacted the children at the orphanage as much as it did us, but the truth is that they need more support than eleven college students cleaning and painting. We are so glad that we were given the opportunity to experience this trip and help out in whatever ways we could; however, the impact we had on the community is hopefully only the beginning to a lifetime of service that we, as a whole university, can provide to children like them.